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By Steve Carpenter
HCC Sports Information Director
Sunday, March 9, 2008
WICHITA – The Hutchinson Community College men’s basketball team had to dig out
of holes all day in its Region VI Tournament quarterfinal game against
Coffeyville on Sunday at Wichita State’s Koch Arena.
After managing to tie the game midway through
the second half, the Blue Dragons fell into another and never got back out
in a 78-74 setback to the Red Ravens.
HCC ends its season at 23-9, qualifying for
the Region VI quarterfinals for the first time in four years. Hutchinson
hasn’t had as many as 24 wins since 2004 when that team won 29 games, won
the Jayhawk West outright and went all the way to the regional semifinals.
This was the third meeting of the season
between HCC and Coffeyville. The Ravens took 2 of the three games. The
Ravens’ wins came by two and four points.
Sophomores Bobby Maze and Ken Bowman put the
Blue Dragons on their backs on Sunday.
Maze finished with 26 points, finishing with
six rebounds, four assists and three steals. Maze finished in second place
on the HCC single-season three-point list and ninth place on the career
assist list with 218.
Maze became the first Blue Dragon since Roy
“Pooh” Hairston in 1994 to average 20 or points in a season. Maze finished
at 20.7 points per game and is the only the 10th Blue Dragon since 1968 to
average 20 or more points.
Bowman posted his 12th double-double of the
season and 16th of his career with 23 points and 11 rebounds. He blocked
three shots and finished fourth on the career blocked shot list with 107 and
he moved past Maurice Britton into fourth place on the single-season list
with 66.
“Ken played his heart out,” HCC head coach
Ryan Swanson, who is now 46-18 in two seasons at Hutchinson. “We only got
him four shots in the first half. (Coffeyville) always double down on the
post, so it makes it harder for your posts to get shots. He gets eight more
shots in the second half, makes six of them. He gets 11 rebounds, three
blocks. He played 33 minutes tonight. If he plays 35, I really think we win
the game.”
Other than Maze and Bowman, the rest of the
Blue Dragons’ struggled offensively. Sophomore Henry Rogers finished with
six points and nine rebounds. Sophomore Abdul Herrera and freshman Sam
Edwards had five points each.
HCC finished shooting 28 of 65 from the field
(43.1 percent), just 3 of 13 from 3-point range. Hutch was 15 of 20 from the
free-throw line. The Dragons committed 17 turnovers and were outrebounded
40-38.
Defending Region VI champion Coffeyville had
four players score in double figures, led by Daniel Payne’s 21 points. Payne
was 10 of 12 from the free-throw line. Terrance Hill had 16 points and seven
rebounds. J.J. Lenny Daniel had 14 points before fouling out and J.J.
Seymore had 13 points and six assists.
Coffeyville shot 24 of 59 (40.7 percent) in
the game, 9 of 23 from long range and 21 of 34 from the free-throw line. The
Red Ravens had 16 turnovers.
The Dragons struggled out of the game, but
took a 7-6 lead on a Bowman bucket with 16:15 to play in the first half.
There were six lead changes in the first 20 minutes. Coffeyville took
control after a Daniel hoop with 7:15 to play, which started an 18-9 Raven
run to close the half. The opening segment of that stretch started with an
11-2 run and Coffeyville took a 10-point lead with 2:28 to play. Still
trailing by 10 points late in the half, Bowman’s bucket with 33 seconds to
play trimmed the Raven lead to 39-31 at halftime.
Coffeyville led 46-37 with 14:51 to play when
the Dragons mounted their best offensive run of the game, going on a 17-8
run, tying the game on Bowman’s three-point play with 9:08 to play in the
game.
Soon after, Bowman picked up his fourth foul
and came out of the game. Immediately, Coffeyville built its lead back to
eight points at 68-60 with 4:21 to play after a Daniel bucket.
Coffeyville had only one field goal in the
last four minutes, but hit 10 of 12 free throws. Still HCC got it down to
two points when freshman Blake Bales scored with six seconds to play, but
Hill’s free throws with four seconds left sealed the Blue Dragons’ fate in
2008.
“It’s really tough to lose here,” Bowman
said. “Especially when you lose to a team you’ve played and beat before. It
was a close game where if a couple of possessions go our way, we walk out of
here with a four-point win.”
GAME NOTES
– The 2008 Blue Dragons set a team record with a defensive field-goal
percentage of 38.3 percent (763 of 1,988). … The 2008 Blue Dragons had the
third-most blocked shots in team history with 146. … The 2008 Dragons had
the 10th-most 3-pointers with 165. … Sophomore Lamar Falley finished eighth
in career 3-point goals with 107. He was tied for eighth on the
single-season list with 59. … This was Ken Bowman’s sixth 20-point game and
13th double-figure game of the season. … This was Bobby Maze’s 15th game of
20 or more points this season. … HCC is now 110-39 in Region VI play. … Maze
had a season-high 26 field goal attempts. … Henry Rogers finished with 79
rebounds in the final nine games of the season.
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OTHER QUOTES
Head Coach Ryan Swanson
On the final 6 minutes of the game …
“Coffeyville stepped up and made plays.
They’ve been here before. They answered the bell.”
On the turning points of the game …
“I thought the turning point was when Ken
picked up his fourth foul. We had just taken the lead, but there was just a
little too much time on the clock left to play him out the rest of the way.
So we sub and we go from being tied to down seven in a minute or two. We
never caught back up again.”
On Maze and Bowman …
“Our two best players came to play. They
played their hearts out. The thing about Bobby that you never question is
how much he cares. Bobby’s one of those types of guys who thinks he should
have and could have done more.”
Sophomore Bobby Maze
On his emotions …
“This is one of toughest feelings I have ever
felt. This was a great group of guys that became brothers. We did so much
together. There’s no words to describe it right now. We fought and I give it
up to our guys to playing their hearts out. I wanted this so much for coach.
He’s done so much for us. It’s a tough situation. I wasn’t prepared for
this.”
Sophomore Ken Bowman
On his play …
“I don’t think I rebounded as well as I could
have. I had a good game. It pails in comparison to us not playing very good
defense and giving up offensive rebounds. We did some things to day that we
don’t normally do. You can’t to that stuff and win here.” |
